In certain hospitals the above discussed arrangement requires the health care professional involved to use a small saline vial to flush the injection site to ensure that all medication is delivered to the patient. If not flushed, the residual medication is wasted not only from an expense point of view but also from a patient care point of view.
The above discussed arrangement of flushing the injection site has the disadvantage that the healthcare professional must not only provide a vial but is also required to undertake further steps when delivering medication through an injection port. This increases the cost of delivering medication as well as the taken time to flush the site. A further disadvantage is the increased risk of infection due to the changing of connections.